Free Accounts w/Photobucket/Icon Limit Stuff.

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:39:36 GMT

So I was going through some of the icon makers out there that I commonly use for searching for PBs, and I'm finding a VERY startling trend. I've counted 10 different icon-makers who currently have "used" 25 gig of bandwidth (some in half a month; some with a week left). That's what you get with a free account with Photobucket. I just don't see how THAT many icon-makers are spiking over 25 gig of traffic, ALL in the same month. It just sounds... fishy.

Straight from the website. "Huge Bandwidth - Up to 25 GB of monthly traffic. Bandwidth is reset every month."

I currently have all of my icons on my own domain, so in looking at my detailed bandwidth usage. Over the two years I've used the domain, my icons have steadily gone up and up. Now I realized that my icon journal is not as popular as most others -- and that is no problem -- but last month, but icon's bandwidth usage JUMPED four gig. Might not seem like a lot, but when you consider that it's been pretty steady at 11.5-12.95 gigs, that's a huge jump. So. I went to look, and there's a few xanga (peacocks, yours are on one of these too) websites hotlinking, some forums, and some random other places. It's not a lot, actually. But it got me thinking...

I really don't think that icon-makers are going over 25 gig of bandwidth on their own, and I really wish I could take a look for y'all and see where the traffic was going. You can do a site:url search on Google (Google images seems to be the best way to go about that). I found that spock has a handful of people hotlinking from MySpace and a proboard. I don't know how often Google caches things though. And I also have no answers for those with free accounts. Obviously, you can lock the folders, but there's nothing to stop people from leeching your bandwidth with the right url, short of changing every single URLs address. I hope that I'm wrong about that. Anyone know if changing your folders to private/password protected keeps people from actually using the direct links to hotlink?

The other option is that Photobucket messed up on free accounts this month and somehow set EVERYONE's bandwidth lower or just had a hiccup. With as many people who have had the hiccup, I think questioning them might be an option. I realize it's free, but they may not be aware that something is messed up. It's all in how you go about it, so be nice if you decide to. XD

racetrack knows you wank

Free Accounts w/Photobucket/Icon Limit Stuff.